Contamination of hoses, tubes, pipes and conduits represents a major problem to industry as it directly causes major plant and machinery breakdowns requiring extensive repairs at a cost which is impossible to measure. The smaller the internal diameter of the hose, tube or pipe, the greater is the potential for damage caused by the presence of contaminants due to the inability to effectively clean these small diameter tubes.
Thus a system which effectively removes contamination from tubes, pipes, conduits and hoses, arising from use, or from manufacture, cutting and fitting of new assemblies is required. It is evident that a method is required to overcome the problems caused by the extensive component and system malfunctions due to particles of contamination. The traditional methods such as using pull-throughs, bowing out the lines with air or flushing with oil, solvents or chemicals are inefficient. Frequently these methods involved substantial labour and material costs. Solvents and chemicals utilised in the process represented a hazard to the user and often created disposal problems, having regard to the toxicity of the chemicals with environmental concerns.
It is known that the complex task can be achieved by propelling a foam pellet through a hose, pipe, conduit or tube to be cleaned. The pellet is slightly larger in external diameter than the internal diameter of the hose, pipe, conduit or tube and consequently the pellet expands against the internal surface thereby eliminating the contaminants as it passes through. irrespective of whether they are liquid or solid.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,974,277 of which David Wayne Caseila is the inventor, describes a hand held pneumatic gun which has a breech pivoted to the gun, that is a hinged face plate, that can be opened to allow the nozzle size to be changed and the projectile inserted therein. That gun has no adequate safety mechanism, and is limited in its use to a small range of diameter hoses and pipes, and comprises of one assembly and does not have the interlocking multi-purpose assembly. Application Ser. No. AU663294 (83338/91) Is an Improvement on U.S. Pat. No. 4,974,277 and has the exact same limitations.
It is the object of this invention to provide a multi-purpose pneumatic tool having a multi function hand piece with interchangeable attachments or heads. One such attachment is the pressure purging which is easily adapted to a wide range of internal diameters of pipes, tubes or hoses, and another is the spool head.
Also it is an object of the invention to provide a wide range of heads which will be adapted to separate and different tasks but each will be interchangeable with the interlocking assembly.
The multi function hand piece, by using an unique interlocking assembly, can be used for a variety of different purposes by the attachment of devices for cleaning for pipes, tubes and hoses, a spooling attachment, and other attachments such as a venturi system for sand blasting or the extraction of the addition of liquids to the air stream, an air drill, and pressure testing of pressure systems.
An additional object of the invention is to provide a safety device, both automatic and manual to prevent the operation of the hand piece unless the attachment or head is correctly positioned and affixed by the interlocking assembly between the multi function hand piece and attachment or head.